Caterpillar found on black haw (Viburnum prunifolium)

Moved

Moved from Tachinidae.

… v belov, 14 April, 2009 - 4:31pm

Moved

Moved from Flies.

… Martin Hauser, 7 April, 2009 - 9:05pm

Moved

Moved from Frass.

… john and jane balaban, 8 September, 2007 - 5:33pm

Frassed

Moved from ID Request.

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 18 August, 2007 - 12:00pm

Should this image

stay with the fly pupa (and hopefully fly adult!) images?

… john and jane balaban, 24 August, 2007 - 8:51pm

fly adult

The adult fly did emerge, and several days later ended its earthly existence. If I can get a good picture of the dead fly I'll post it, then please let me know if you think it'll be useful to keep all the images posted and to keep them together.
Best,
Jonathan

… Jonathan Rosenthal, 9 September, 2007 - 11:29pm

Great, we look forward

to the climax of this story!

… john and jane balaban, 10 September, 2007 - 1:12pm

This doesn't seem to be the way

pupation should occur. The caterpillar forms its pupa under its larval skin, then shucks off the larval skin. The old skin would look like an old frock lying on the floor, just tissue. Here we still see the caterpillar. We would guess that means something like a tachinid fly larva emerged from the caterpillar and it is the fly pupa that you are looking at. The caterpillar is dead and you are looking at what didn't get eaten by the fly larva.

Hopefully, someone who knows Tachinids will chime in and give you the corect details rather than our sketchy description above.

… john and jane balaban, 6 July, 2007 - 8:37am

I was afraid that I was actua

I was afraid that I was actually looking at a parasitoid pupa - due not only to the fleshiness of the "skin" left behind, but also to the small pupal size, and the fact that the live lep showed parasitoid wounds (visible in the phot). However, I was steadfastly in denial as I really wanted the lep to pupate so I could ID it from the adult.

Any ideas on the ID of the caterpillar - from the photo of it before it was just a shell of its former self? Also, I don't know how host specific tachinids are, but I wonder if when the adult emerges, identifying it will shed light on the caterpillar's identity.

Thanks very much

… Jonathan Rosenthal, 6 July, 2007 - 11:01am

actias luna maybe

how big was the caterpillar? it kind of looks like actias luna

… Alex Baranowski, 29 November, 2013 - 7:08pm